Add a new Entity with associated Table with joinData

1

I have 3 Tables:

  • ingredients (id, name)
  • dishsizes (id, name)
  • dishsizes_ingredients (id, dishsize_id, ingredient_id, unitprice)

I want to add a new Ingredient and define in the same form the unitprices.

in the add-form I have:

<?php foreach ($dishsizes as $i => $dishsize): ?> 
<div class="flex flex-col w-full">
  <label class="text-black"><?= $dishsize->name?></label>
  <?= $this->Form->number('dishsizes.'.$i.'._joinData.unitprice',['min'=>1,'step'=>0.01,'class'=>'w-2/3 mt-2 mb-6 px-4 py-2 border rounded-lg text-lg text-gray-700 focus:outline-none','label'=>'none','hiddenField'=>false,'default'=>NULL])?>
  <?= $this->Form->hidden('dishsizes.'.$i.'._joinData.currency_id',['value'=>1])?>
  <?= $this->Form->hidden('dishsizes.'.$i.'._joinData.dishsize_id',['value'=>$dishsize->id])?>
</div>
<?php endforeach; ?>

This results in post data:

‘dishsizes’ => [
(int) 0 => [
‘_joinData’ => [
‘unitprice’ => ‘5’, ‘currency_id’ => ‘1’, ‘dishsize_id’ => ‘1’,
],
], (int) 1 => , (int) 2 => , (int) 3 => ,

So far so good, but the ingredient entity, created with
$ingredient = $this->Ingredients->patchEntity($ingredient, $this->request->getData(),['associated'=>['Foodadditives','Ingredientnotes','Dishsizes._joinData']]);

has errors in dishsizes.

'dishsizes' => [
(int) 0 => object(App\Model\Entity\Dishsize) id:13 {
'_joinData' => object(App\Model\Entity\DishsizesIngredient) id:14 { } '[new]' => true '[accessible]' => [ ] '[dirty]' => [ ] '[original]' => [ ] '[virtual]' => [ ] '[hasErrors]' => true '[errors]' => [
'name' => [
'_required' => 'This field is required',
],
]

I think the ingredient id is missing in the dishsizes part of the ingredient id.
But how to solve this?

2

If I’m reading this correctly, what it’s complaining about is that the name field in the DishsizesIngredient entity is blank.

3

yes, that is right.
The Controller does not know, that the dishsize already exists.
I made a little workaround and save the data for dishsizes_ingredients separately, but maybe there is a better solution?

4

Does dishsizes_ingredients even have a name column in it? Why is the validation looking for that?

5

dishsizes_ingredients does not have a name column.

but I have seen, that a similar question already was discussed here: Save tags to articles (belongsToMany) with joinData - #12 by TheMiller

And the answer is: it does not work out of the box:-)
Thanks for your help

6

Finally found a solution.
I added

echo $this->Form->hidden(‘dishsizes.’.$i.‘.id’, [‘value’ => $dishsize->id]);

to the input field, so that it now looks like:

<?php foreach ($dishsizes as $i => $dishsize): ?> 
    <div class="flex flex-col w-full">
      <label class="text-black"><?= $dishsize->name?></label>
      <?php
          echo $this->Form->hidden('dishsizes.'.$i.'.id', ['value' => $dishsize->id]);
          echo $this->Form->number('dishsizes.'.$i.'._joinData.unitprice',['min'=>1,'step'=>0.01,'class'=>'w-2/3 mt-2 mb-6 px-4 py-2 border rounded-lg text-lg text-gray-700 focus:outline-none','label'=>'none','hiddenField'=>false,'default'=>NULL]);
          echo $this->Form->hidden('dishsizes.'.$i.'._joinData.currency_id',['value'=>1]);
          echo $this->Form->hidden('dishsizes.'.$i.'._joinData.dishsize_id',['value'=>$dishsize->id]);
        ?>
    </div>
  <?php endforeach; ?>

Maybe it is helpful for someone